The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1887-04-01
HOW a IG-YEAR-OLD GIRLS EYES
WERE OPENED.

HOW 4 IG-YEAR-OLD GIRLS EYES
WE'RE OPENED.
AT sixteen ] could paint a rose or lily so
like the genuine flowers that they them
selves might have been deceived by my
portrayals and have. taken them for their
own pretty reflections in stream or mir
ror. And in music had so mastered the
| intrieacies even of Beethoven that ! played
one of his sonatas all through at a public
recital. But never had swept room in
my life, and if any one had asked me why
eggs were used in cooking I might perhaps
have been obtuse enough to answer, "For
sweetening purposes. And ! gloried in
my ignorance, considering it bliss, until
one day in summer, when my eyes were
opened wider than they ever were before
My parents had gone away for day or
two, taking the chambermaid with then,
and Immediately after their departure the
cook went to bed sick. | was not much
disturbed, however, as there was plenty of
cooked food in the house. But about noon.
when ] was practising the scales, and my
fingers were scampering like white mice
from one end of the piano to the other, a
merry laugh interrupted my exertions, and
turning my head, all bristling with hair
pins for evening beautifiers, | saw my cou-
sin Charley and two other youths from
college. | always called Charley my cou-
sin, although the relationship was a little
I
indistinct, his elder half sister having mar
ried my uncle.
Jenny, he said, we've come to dinner
as hungry as three bears.
''Oh dear" | gasped, there's no one
here but me. and don't know how to get
a dinner. But there's cold meat and
bread. .
Cant we have steak, Jenny. he in
quired, ''and baked potatoes and coffee !?
Well all help.
well. rejoined, come into the kiteh-
en-, but you'll have to make a fire first"
1--WE can do it,, was the merry reply.
Toms the philosopher.
And you're the
NO impertinenee, Charley retorted,
''but we'll soon have a fire.
We did, and, getting to the potatoes, /
was putting them right into the oven when
my cousin asked in stage whisper, ..Jen-
ny, Jenny, amt you going to wash them
first p;
Ny cheeks burned, and taking them to
,he sink gave them such scrubbing
as potatoes never received before.
''charley." | whispered, ''shall | wash
the steak -
'sIf you choose, dear, = he answered, but
| wouldn't use soap. Now where's the
ground coffee p
did not know any more about it than
if had lived in Jupiter and Venus, but the
boy's nose led him right to the spot, and
soon the coffee was boiling and the steak
broiling in appetizing way. placed the
meat upon a dish, and was intending TO
leave it thus in ''beauty unadorned. when
one of my visitors suggested timidly: Eek
cuse me, but don't YOU put a little some
thing on it? Lard or butter or some
thing?
Not lard Charley interposed Great
Scott. butter, salt and pepper, Jenny. are
the usual ingredients.
Blushing more furiously than ever, I APP
piled the desired articles, and the dinner
was really very good. We had a merry
time, but when my COUSIN salt, gocd-by he
added: You re dear, jolly girl, Jenny.
but if | were you I'd learn how to cook.
| 1t would look better, don't You know .
/ Yes, did know. and ! was not silly
enough to take ofense. | took the hint
instead, and so efectually that three
months afterwards, when my adviser came
| to visit us, sent the cook out of the
kitchen and got the dinner myself, unas-
sisted, and Charley whispered-bnt no
matter what he whispered. That was sew
eral years ago, and now he sits opposite to
me at the table three times day. Coed
! yJayse Ieegiy0